The Worst That Quad Happen
by JustVilda Potter
Summary: On what seems like a normal day, the quads get to know that their house has burned down, and their parents are nowhere to be found. After staying with a friendly social worker for a while, they get to know that they have to live in foster families. For the first time in their lives, the quads have to live without each other.
1. The Bad Beginning

**Helloooo everyone, and welcome to my second story on here. I just finished the first one (The Fantastic Quadastrophy Sleepover), and I just ****_need _****to write more.**

**This story is a little inspired by the stories 'Britney Harper' and 'Foster Kid' (go read those after you've read this), but only in a few parts. It's an original story, that I came up with while reading those two stories by two other amazing authors.**

**Note: This is an alternate universe story, meaning this could in no way actually happen in the series.**

**But now let's get on with the story!**

* * *

It was the 24th of March in Boulder, Colorado. A normal Thursday to many. What would be special about it, except for a possible birthday or anniversary? _Nothing_, everyone thought. It was just a normal day, right?

Definitely not.

It was everything _but_ a normal day.

The day started like any other day. Everyone in Boulder woke up, ate breakfast, and went to school or work, including the twelve-year-old Harper quadruplets. Not thinking the day was special in any way, they had gone to Edgewood school, had normal, boring lessons, and hopped on the school bus home. None of them had any idea that in just a couple of minutes, their lives would change drastically.

"Did you see Evanna in history class today?" Dawn leaned over Dicky, to talk to Ricky. They sat in the back of the bus, where there were four seats next to each other.

"Yeah, she fell asleep!"

They both laughed.

"What Evanna?", Dicky asked.

"Evanna Mendoza", Dawn replied.

Dicky nodded, understanding.

"Oh, _her!_ She's the cute blonde right?"

Dawn frowned.

"I guess... maybe."

Dicky was still nodding to himself.

"Yeah, she's the one with green eyes," he stopped nodding. "She _is_ cute! Right, Nicky?"

Nicky sat closest to the left window. He looked out, listening to music with ear buds.

"What?", he asked, his tone making it clear he was not up to conversation.

"That girl Evanna Mendoza, she's cute right?"

Nicky shrugged.

"I don't know."

Dicky leaned over Dawn, and ripped Nicky's ear bud out.

"Do you know now?"

Nicky sighed loudly, and took his ear bud back.

"No! And I need these."

"For what?" Ricky leaned in to the conversation.

"I get carsick when I don't listen to music."

Nicky put his ear bud back, annoyed, and looked back out the window. Outside there he saw them coming up to their bus stop, and so he sat back up again, and took his ear buds out.

"Guys, we're getting off."

The other three quickly looked out the window, and saw it too. The big, yellow bus pulled up to a bus stop next to some red houses. The quads started squeezing themselves past each other, trying to be the first one out. Constantly bumping kids with their different colored backpacks, they got off, one by one, in the order; Dawn, Dicky, Ricky, Nicky.

As the bus drove off, the kids who got off walked away in different directions. The quads crossed the street to the right, on their way home.

"Can you answer my question _now_?"

"Yes, Dicky. And, I still don't know."

Dicky threw his hands up, and tossed them down, rolling his eyes.

"You don't have any classes with her, do you?" Dawn seemed confused.

Nicky shook his head.

"That explains it", Ricky stated. "She's like the most extroverted, funny girl" He gasped "You're right, Dicky, she is pretty cute."

Ricky and Dicky laughed together for a few seconds.

"Excuse me, are you the Harper quadruplets?"

The quads all looked up from each other. About five meters away from them, a woman stood. She had brown, wavy hair, and she wore what looked like a grey business suit, but with a tight knee-long skirt instead of pants. Her legs were pretty long, and she was tall too. Probably around 6 feet. Looking at her, the quads assumed she was around 30 years old. She had a serious look on her face.

"Yes, we are", Dawn said, smiling her first-good-impression smile. The woman sighed, and cleared her throat.

"Well, then... There's something you need to know."

She nodded towards a nearby bench, and they went over and sat down on it. She cleared her throat again.

"My name is Corinne Lewis, and I'm a social worker," she pulled out a card from her jacket. It was her profile card from her job. The quads looked at each other, confused. Ricky was the first to speak.

"What does that have to do with us?"

Corinne sighed again, and looked at them with slight misery in her eyes, and an empathetic smile.

"There's been a serious accident."

The kids' expressions went from confused to concerned. Corinne continued.

"A fire broke out in your house earlier today"

Shock broke out on the quads' faces. Nicky and Ricky exchanged a quick look, and Dicky looked like his life flashed before his eyes (even though his life wasn't in danger).

"Can... can we... can we go there?" Dawn tried to form words, but they wouldn't come out right. The quads all stood up, but Corinne stopped them, so they sat back down again.

"There's no '_there'_ to go. It all burned to the ground."

Tears started forming in the children's eyes. Even Corinne seemed to tear up seeing their miserable faces.

"But... but mom and dad were in there" Nicky felt a tear rolling down his cheek. Corinne just nodded, slowly. Ricky felt worry hastily building up inside him.

"Where are they?" he made eye contact with Corinne, who just teared up even more.

"Tell me you know where they are!"

The other quads caught up with what he was suspecting. Their suspicion was confirmed when Corinne said:

"I can't. Police couldn't find a single sign of them anywhere around the house."

A small amount of tears started falling out of the kids' eyes. Corinne wiped away a tear under her own eye, smearing her eyeliner.

"Police have checked throughout all of town, and a little outside. They weren't found anywhere."

The small amount quickly turned into waterfalls.

"Then what do we do!?", Dawn yelled. Corinne tried to calm them down a little.

"Until we found out what happened to your parents, you'll be staying with me. The police are pretty sure they'll find something by the end of the day."

* * *

The devastated quads walked into Corinne's bungalow. During the car ride there she had explained that she usually takes in kids who's parents can't be found. They'd stay with her for a day, and on an off occasion sleep there, then their parents would be found. She had managed to comfort them a little letting them know that Tom and Anne would probably be found, safe and sound by the end of the day.

She led them to her small, round table, where they sat down while she went and got them some cookies.

"How could this happen?" Dicky leaned his elbows on the table, letting his head rest on his hands. The others shrugged.

"How did a fire start?", Dawn asked.

"We were always so careful with lights, candles and those things" Nicky sobbed.

Corinne walked in with a cookie jar. She put it on the table, took the lid off, and crouched down between Nicky and Ricky.

"Shortbread with chocolate. They always work for cheering up."

She stood up, and turned around to walk out the room. Before she did however, she turned her head.

"I'm gonna contact the police and see if there's any new information."

She left them alone again. The quads each took a cookie, and bit into it. It tasted a bit bitter, and the shortbread was crumbly. Nicky concluded she wasn't a practised cook. Still the cookies actually did manage to cheer them up a little. They managed to find some good in the situation, and made up a solution they wished for.

Maybe things wouldn't turn out so horrible anyway...

Little did they know it would. It would be even more horrible than they could ever imagine.

* * *

Almost five hours later they still didn't have a clue what happened to Tom and Anne. Corinne had shown the quads to where they would probably be sleeping that night. It was a small room with four beds. The walls were covered with a floral patterned wallpaper, and the floor was creaky.

It was clear not many people used the room, and so it hadn't been much worked on.

The quads had each picked a bed to sleep in, and now just relaxed in there. They were still trying to comprehend the day. The afternoon had started with them talking about a girl in history class, and now they were in a social worker's house, wondering where their parents were.

In the moment, they weren't talking much. They sat in their temporary beds, just thinking. They could hear Corinne talking to someone on the phone outside.

After a while, she opened the door to the little bedroom. She still held the phone to her ear.

"Okay... I'll tell them," she looked dogged as she hung up the phone and turned to the quads. "I have news about your parents, and house."

The quads were out of the beds in a second, hopefully waiting for Corinne to continue. Corinne took a deep breath.

"The police think the fire wasn't an accident. They think someone started it on purpose, and this same person has probably-" she stopped for a second as she choked on her tears. "They-... they think this same person has probably murdered your parents, and hid their bodies."

For a couple of seconds there was just silence. The quads were in complete shock. This was impossible.

"Then..", Dawn started. "Then what do we do?"

Her voice was slurred, as her throat was filled with sadness. Corinne took a deep breath again.

"You're going to have to go to a foster family."


	2. The Picture-Perfect Rallisons

Dicky was the first one to wake up the next morning. He lay in his bed, just snoozing for about five minutes, before he opened his eyes.

At first he felt confused. The events of yesterday hadn't reached his morning mind yet. Why was he in a tiny room? Why was Dawn in there? Looking out the window, he realized he wasn't anywhere near home. Where was he!?

First a few minutes later, it hit him that they were in Corinne's house, and what had happened yesterday. He felt his eyes tearing up.

Ricky woke up a minute later, rolled over, and slowly sat up in his bed. He looked over at Dicky, and when he noticed Dicky's eyes, his got watery too.

"Should we wake the others", Ricky whispered.

Dicky nodded. He got out of bed, and saw Nicky laying on his left, with his back towards him. Dicky tapped his shoulder. Nicky seemed to be in a light sleep, as he sleepily turned his head immediately.

On the other side of the room (which was only one meter away from the youngest quads), Ricky had waken Dawn up, and she sat in her bed, resting on her arms. The room was quiet for a minute, before the quads heard steps in the hallway. The creaky door slowly opened, and Corinne peeped in.

"Good morning, quads," she talked quietly, and tip-toed into the room, closing the door behind her.

"Morning," Ricky skipped the 'good' part of 'good morning'.

He and Dicky wiped their eyes.

"I was just waiting for you to wake up. I have some news" In spite of the situation, Corinne seemed quite excited. "We've found families that would like to take care of you"

Nicky, Dicky and Dawn lit up, happy to hear some good in the moment. They smiled at each other, and whispered something. Ricky however, didn't join the quiet celebration. His eyes were tearing up again, and he looked concerned.

"Did... did you just say... _families_?"

The other quads picked up on it too, and their little celebration ended as fast as it had started. Corinne nodded. First at this point she processed what was going to happen to them.

"Four families have volunteered to take care of you, but each of them could just take care of one child."

The quads looked at each other, tears quietly streaming down their faces.

"Are we going to different families?" Dawn already knew the answer, but she felt that she needed it told to her anyway.

"Unfortunately... yes", Corinne informed them. "One of the families could welcome their foster kid as early as today at noon."

"Wh-... which one of us is leaving?" Nicky sounded nervous.

Corinne's eyes fell on the oldest quad.

"Dawn."

* * *

A couple of hours after getting to know Dawn was leaving, the quads stood on the lawn outside the house. Next to them, Corinne sat in her car, waiting for Dawn to finish her goodbyes, so she could drive her to the airport, and fly to Florida with her. She understood how awfully hard this was for them, but there was no other solution. She couldn't take care of them for more than a couple of days, and no family would volunteer to take care of more than one, let alone all four.

"I can't believe this is happening," Dawn sniffed, and wiped away a tear with her teal sleeve. "I mean, you guys have caused me so much trouble and anger, but-" she sobbed, "but I never wanted to leave you."

The boys, also crying their eyes out, nodded agreeing.

"How could things go this wrong?", Nicky asked.

The other three shrugged. Corinne peeped her head out the car window, and the quads turned to her.

"Dawn... we have to go now. The family are expecting to see you in four hours."

Dawn turned back to her brothers.

"Quad hug."

The four kids came together to a big hug. Sobbing, they hugged each other harder than ever.

"I love you guys", Dawn cried.

"We love you too."

They let go. Dawn grabbed the only luggage she had (her backpack), and turned around to get into the backseat of the car. She didn't feel like sitting in front. Talking to anyone except her brothers was the last thing she wanted to do.

As Corinne started the car, and slowly drove away, Dawn look at her brothers. They sobbingly waved to each other, all the way until Corinne turned to the right. For all Dawn knew, that could have been the last time she saw Nicky, Ricky and Dicky. She just wanted to get right back to them, and never ever leave again. That was the only thing she could think for the entire car ride to Denver, and on the flight to Florida.

Corinne had looked over the entire country to find families, and none of the ones volunteering lived anywhere _close_ to Colorado. Dawn was going to a family called the Rallison's. She knew little about the family, and all Corinne had let on was that they lived in St. Petersburg, and had two kids.

* * *

Almost four hours after Dawn last saw her brothers, the taxi Corinne had called pulled up to a house. Dawn climbed out of the taxi as Corinne payed. They had pulled up to a long line of terraced houses.

They were all painted white, and had black roofs. A tiny four-step staircase led up to each black, windowed door. Above the doors, number plates hung, telling you which house was which.

"Thanks for the ride."

Corinne caught up with Dawn as the taxi drove away.

"Are you ready to meet your foster family?"

Dawn nodded, although she wasn't 100 percent sure. Corinne started leading her right, towards the end of the road.

"The Rallisons live at number 26."

Dawn didn't answer. They continued walking up the street, until they reached the right house. There were multiple different flowers on the window sill, and a little lantern hung beside the door.

Corinne got up the steps and tapped on the door three times. Each hit made a deep knocking sound. Footsteps could be heard from the inside, and very soon the door was opened by a woman.

The woman looked like she was around 40, as her face had some wrinkles here and there. She had scrawny, dark blonde hair, which straightly reached her shoulders.

"Oh, hi. You must be Dawn," she smiled, trying to seem welcoming as she pushed the door fully open. Dawn could now see that she was wearing a grey knitted sweater, and a pair of jeans.

Dawn just nodded, and stepped into the house. The inside was quite modern, and the walls were painted light grey. The woman's shirt matched them perfectly. Right in front of the hall, there was a hallway, which seemed to lead into the living room. Dawn could see a man, and two children sitting on the couch. She could immediately assume they were the woman's family.

"I'm sorry for the mess. We've been cleaning for an hour, but some things just won't go away."

Dawn didn't understand what that lady meant. Compared to the Harper house, this place shone as diamonds. The woman reached out her hand towards Dawn.

"I'm Scarlette."

Dawn hesitantly took her hand, and shook it. Scarlette's hand was dry, and gave her a somewhat boring vibe.

"And this is my family", Scarlette continued talking as she led Dawn into the living room where the other three were waiting.

There was a smiling, tall man, sitting in the middle of the couch. He had happy, green eyes, and a full head of curly, brown hair. He felt more like a funny person than Scarlette. Considering he was wearing sweatpants on such an occasion, she concluded he wasn't really a '_formal man_'. She didn't care about that. It wasn't like Tom was any better.

On the right side of the man, a little girl was sitting. She couldn't be much younger than Dawn, but she was definitely not older than her. The girl had her mother's hair color, and dad's hair texture. It was a pretty nice mix, and it perfectly fitted her blue eyes. She wore a white t-shirt with cherries on it, and a skirt with suspenders. One of the suspenders wasn't strapped on though.

The little boy on the other side of the man basically looked like her twin, but younger. He couldn't be older than ten, as he had a child-looking face, and wore something that kind of looked like one of Nicky's shirts. But for all she knew, he could just as well be a child-at-heart.

Scarlette sat down on the other side of the little girl.

"Meet your new family."

Dawn didn't like how she said 'new family'. It was as if she was going to stay there forever.

"This is my husband, Michael."

The tall man smiled and waved.

"And these are our children. Wynter, she's eleven, and Kevin is eight."

The kids smiled too, but something felt a little off. Sitting there on the couch, smiling, the family looked pretty picture-perfect, but still something felt a little wrong.

Dawn noticed it a second later. The kids' smiles looked forced, and there was something frightened in their eyes. Were they scared of something in the room? Maybe they were just shy... That had to be the case...

It was not. Being shy was not even close to the real situation.

"Hi... I'm Dawn. I'm twelve, but you probably already know that," Dawn had never felt so quiet and sad while presenting herself.

Scarlette stood up from the couch.

"Wynter, Kevin, why don't you show Dawn where she'll sleep?"

The two children immediately stood up from the couch.

"Yes mom," the younger boy, Kevin, said. He didn't sound like he was happy saying it. And it felt forced. Forced to please Scarlette.

"Of course," the girl, Wynter, did the same.

They walked up to Dawn, and started leading her through the short hallway. As they turned in the hall to go up the stairs, Wynter whispered:

"You do _not_ want to be here."


	3. The Fancy Fishers

The Ickys sat in the living room, patiently waiting for Corinne to return. After Dawn had left, they had done nothing but cried, talked, and waited. That was five hours ago. They had eaten some bread they found for lunch, but it wasn't filling. The only thing they really wanted was to have their sister back. Even Ricky had admitted he missed their leader, and that they needed her. Without her, they weren't a united foursome. They were just a threesome.

How could they be the Harper quadruplets if the oldest left?

They had been without her before, when she went to sleep over at Mae's, or something like that. But the thing that was different was that with those times they knew when they would see Dawn again. Now they had no idea...

It could be just a few days if they found Tom and Anne alive, but it could just as well be the rest of their lifetimes.

If Tom and Anne were not found, but proof they died was, they would be up for adoption for these families. Dawn Harper could be Dawn Rallison in no time.  
The boys didn't know who they could become. Corinne hadn't told them anything about their foster families. Just that there were three different for the boys.

There was a chance they would never see each other again too. Like, Dawn went to Florida, how far away could they go?

The boys got the answer just a couple of minutes later.

They heard the front door open, and someone stepped in. A worrying feeling crept up in them. In just a couple of minutes they would know who would be the next to leave.

"Quad hug," Ricky sobbed-called.

The three boys got closer together on the couch and hugged each other tightly. It didn't feel right without Dawn. Nothing did. Everything was wrong.

They heard Corinne's heels walking through the house, looking for them.

"We have to stay strong now."

Ricky grabbed Dicky and Nicky's hands, just as Corinne walked into the room.

"Hey boys," she sighed. "The Fishers called, and they're ready to welcome _you_ in."

Ricky felt his heart drop to his feet when Corinne looked at him while saying 'you'.

"Where do they live?", Ricky asked, hoping with all his heart it was close to Boulder.

"New York City."

Ricky looked away, feeling his eyes water. He stood up as Corinne gestured for him to come. He was almost shaking all the way to the car. Nicky and Dicky followed him there, sobbing and sniffing.

Before getting in the car and leaving for New York, Ricky turned around.

"Well... I guess this is goodbye," his voice was shaky.

He opened his arms, and his two younger brothers walked into the hug. Their tears stained the shoulders of Ricky's blue sweater vest. He didn't care about it. This was not a time to be mad at them. It was the same sweater he wore yesterday, so it was dirty anyway.

A few seconds later they let go, whispered a short "Love you guys", and Ricky turned around. He sat down in the front seat, and didn't even look at Corinne.

She, of course, understood why he didn't, and why he didn't say a word for the entire car ride, or plane flight. Ricky just wanted his brothers and sister back. He felt vulnerable.

* * *

After a twenty minute taxi ride, the driver pulled up next to a street in the middle of the city. Ricky and Corinne stepped out onto the people packed sidewalk. Trying carefully not to get squished, Corinne handed the taxi driver his money. She turned to Ricky.

"Here we are."

They stood in front of a skyscraper. When Ricky looked up to see the top, he got the illusion that the skyscraper was slowly tilting, and about to fall. The dizzy feeling made him look down again, and he noticed Corinne had gone into the building.

On the inside it looked like a pretty normal apartment building. Grey floor, wine red walls, and a corridors to the left and right in front of them.

Corinne walked right into the left corridor, and stepped into a glass elevator. The elevator looked out of place, like it was taken from another building, and placed in this one.

Ricky walked into the elevator, and Corinne pressed some buttons. He didn't see which, as he was busy trying to figure out why the elevator looked so weird. An uncomfortable feeling spread through him as the elevator took him off the floor.

They went up... and up... and up. As they passed all the floors, Ricky could see through the glass that the floors seemed to get fancier and fancier the higher up they got, and finally they stopped. The glass doors slid open, and it looked like they were in a totally different building. The elevator fit in here. Almost all the walls were covered in big windows. Looking out, Ricky realized they were in the penthouse. There was only one door in the big room. It had to be the Fisher's.

"Should we go in?" Corinne looked down at Ricky, who slowly nodded.

They walked up to the door, Corinne clicked the doorbell, and what Tom would call "_Le Doorbell Suite"_ echoed in the room. Footsteps were heard from inside, and two people opened the door. A man and a woman. They fit right into the fancy place. Straight backs, tiny smiles, strict eyes.

The man had well-combed black hair, and a pair of emerald green eyes. He was wearing a dark blue shirt, and black pants.

His wife didn't look one bit less formal. She had golden blonde, straight, hair reaching to a point somewhere on her back. Her makeup made her look not a day older than 25, but Ricky suspected she was at least ten years older than that.

"Hello, Richard," the woman said in a British accent.

Ricky half-smiled.

"I prefer to be called Ricky", he quietly explained.

"We don't have _nicknames_ in this house," Ricky could her on the man's voice that this was a serious subject, so he just slowly nodded. The woman turned her head, looking into the penthouse apartment.

"Meghan!"

A few seconds later a golden blonde girl stepped into sight. She looked like a mini replica of the woman, and as the woman had said, her name was obviously Meghan (and that could in no way be a nickname according to the man).

Meghan wore a white dress reaching her knees. The whole family looked like they were going to a wedding, or some other formal event.

"What, mother?" Meghan walked up to the door. She looked at Ricky. "You're Richard, I suppose."

Her voice was also were British. Ricky nodded.

"Well, I've got to leave now. I just got a message from the McDaniel's," Corinne turned around, and got to the elevator, leaving Ricky with the Fisher's.

The mother in the family gestured for him to come in. Ricky took a step onto the apartment's plywood floor. Meghan went and sat down on the couch with a book, while the woman got to the kitchen area.

"I am Sam, that is my wife, Gabrielle," the man, apparently named Sam, smiled a little more pointing to his wife. "And this is our daughter Meghan."

He sat down on the couch, next to his daughter. Meghan smiled slightly, not looking away from her book. Ricky couldn't see the cover, but he recognized the language on the pages as french.

"Meghan, would you be so kind and show Richard his room. Then you'll also have time to...," Sam looked like he was searching for the words. "get to know each other."

"Of course, father," Meghan closed her book, and now Ricky could see the cover. It was also french.

Meghan swiftly stood up, and put her book on the table.

"Follow me, Richard."

She walked around the couch, and into a corridor. Ricky caught up with her as she opened a door into a room.

"So... what are you reading?"

Meghan sighed, seeming uninterested.

"I'm learning french."

"Oh! I know some French words, but I'm more adept at Dutch."

Meghan looked down at her designer nails, still not really paying attention to what he was saying.

"I already speak Dutch. I wanted a bit more of a challenge, so I started teaching myself French. German, Russian and Spanish were too easy. I'm going for Irish once I'm done with French."

Ricky raised his eyebrows. She could speak a lot of languages, and on top of that keep a very British accent in a town full of Americans. A short silence followed between them as they stood on each side of the doorway.

"So are you going in sometime soon?" Meghan asked irritably.

Ricky flinched, and nodded. Meghan quickly left, and Ricky got into his room.


	4. The Arguing McDaniels

Back at Corinne's, Dicky and Nicky were the only ones left. They felt hopeless. None of them had ever been the leader of the team, and now they were there alone, waiting to see who would go first.

Whoever would leave, would for sure go tomorrow. It was already 6 pm. There was no way they could leave this evening.

Neither Nicky nor Dicky had ever felt so abandoned. Corinne had been out almost all day, and only came back to take Ricky away from them.  
They were alone.

Well... at least they had each other... For a few hours.

* * *

Nicky woke up in his bed. Waking up would usually be good, seeing as it meant he could get up and make breakfast. But today it felt horrible. Nicky just wanted to go back to sleep, and not wake up to find that either him or Dicky would leave the last quad alone.

He rolled over, and saw Dicky. Dicky was awake, staring up at the ceiling. He looked concerned.

"What are you thinking about?"

Dicky turned his head when he heard Nicky.

"That I don't want to leave."

A tear rolled down his face.

"Neither do I."

They looked away from each other. There was a knock on the door.

"Boys, are you awake?" Corinne quietly opened it, and saw them laying awake on their beds, half crying.

"Look, I understand what you're going through, and I get what it feels like," she sat down on the bed Ricky had slept in. "And I hate having to do this to you, but..."

She took a deep breath, and sighed.

"Dicky and I are leaving directly after breakfast."

The boys looked at each other, sobbing loudly.

"I'll prepare something," Corinne stepped out, and closed the door.

Nicky and Dicky got out of their beds in a second, and threw their arms around each other. They were going to lose each other in just one hour.

* * *

For the third time, they stood outside the bungalow, hugging each other as tight as they could. This time it couldn't really be called a quad hug. They had lost too many people already. It was just a normal hug between the two youngest.

"I love you, Dicky" Nicky let go from the hug.

"I love you, too"

They stood in silence and just looked at each other for a second. Eyes tearing up and quietly sobbing, Dicky hopped into the car. As Corinne started the car, Dicky leaned on the window. He watched Nicky walk back into the house, rubbing his eyes, all the way until the car turned, and he couldn't see him any longer.

Dicky looked down at his legs. A tear fell down onto his light blue jeans, making a darker dot by his knee. Not only had all of the quads separated in different directions, but Dicky had also left his only younger brother alone.

He felt guilty.

* * *

Five hours later Dicky stepped out of the taxi. They were on a small parking lot. There were houses on both the left and right side of it. All of them were red bungalows. Around them were a lot of elm trees, just about to bloom. It was pretty cold. Dicky wished he had brought a jacket to school the day of the fire, but it was really hot in Boulder that day. All of their things had been burned to a crisp with their house, so all the luggage they had were their backpacks.

"Want to go meet the McDaniels?" Corinne caught up with Dicky.

He just shook his head. Why would he want to meet them? He really just wanted to go right back to Nicky, and have the others there too. But that wasn't an option.

Corinne sighed.

"We have to go there."

She started leading Dicky towards the left of the parking lot. They walked past a lot of houses. Some looked empty, while some were full of people.

After a while of walking, they approached a house, looking just like all the others. Outside there were three kids, playing in the little yard. Two older boys, and a girl. The boys had short brown hair, and the girl had her (same color) hair in two pigtails, curled at the tips. The boy who looked the oldest wore a fleece jacket, and a pair of black sweatpants. He was pushing his little sister on a swing set. She wore a purple jacket, along with pink tights with flowers on the knees. The last kid, who looked to be the middle one, seemed like the most active, running around the yard in his fake jeans and thin fleece jacket. All three of them stopped what they were doing when they spotted Dicky. They smiled, and ran out of the garden.

"Hello!" the middle kid got there first. Short after his sister got there.

"You're Dominic, right?" her huge smile made her look adorable. Dicky shrugged.

"I would say Dicky."

"Then Dicky it is," the oldest kid held out his hand. "I'm Alec."

Alec was definitely older than Dicky, judging by his length, look and behavior. Dicky shook his hand. The younger two reached out their hands at the same time.

"I'm Douglas."

"I'm Steph."

Alec leaned in to Dicky and whispered:

"She's _Stephanie_, but everyone just calls her Steph."

Steph smiled again.

"You're twelve right?" she pointed at Dicky.

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm seven."

Douglas quickly threw his reply in.

"I'm ten."

"And I'm fourteen."

The kids seemed really nice _and_ funny.

"Kids, where are your parents?" Corinne's question erased the smile's off the McDaniel kids' faces. They looked dogged and concerned.

"They're inside... _arguing_," Alec didn't sound upbeat and happy anymore "That's why we went outside."

"We wanted to welcome you, so their arguing wouldn't be the first you see of our family," Douglas sounded just like Alec.

"We're really not that bad," Steph reassured. Corinne smiled.

"Of course you're not," she looked over at the house. "Well, should we go in?"

The McDaniel's gave each other a quick glance, and they nodded. They turned around and led Dicky and Corinne into the garden. All the way they whispered and talked to each other, like they were planning what to do.

They reached the door, and Alec opened. He stuck in his head.

"Mom! Dad! Dicky's here!"

"Who!?" an angry woman's voice came from somewhere inside the bungalow.

Alec rolled his eyes.

"_Dominic_ is here!"

"Oh!" a man's voice was heard.

A few seconds later Alec pushed the black door wide open. A man and a woman came out of a room further into the house. They both looked annoyed and upset. The McDaniel kids, Dicky and Corinne stepped into the house and greeted the parents.

It was clear the kids had gotten their hair from their mother, as hers looked exactly like theirs. Thick, brown, and lively. Her eyes looked nothing like theirs though. The dad and the kids all had blue eyes, while she had deep brown.

To match his blue eyes he had pale blonde hair, which almost reached his shoulders.

Both of the parents looked like they had barely changed from their pajamas. Or like they had for some reason stopped in the middle of changing. They had everyday pants, but pajamas shirts. The mom hadn't brushed her hair, and it looked like a big mess.

"I'm sorry we haven't prepared... Something came in the way", she explained, sounding flustered. "My name is Isobel."

"I'm Marcus."

The parents, Isobel and Marcus, hadn't smiled once for the whole minute Dicky had seen them. They had barely even looked at Dicky.

It didn't feel right... At all.


	5. The Crowded Thorntons

Nicky was all alone...

He had watched all of his older quads leave for new families, one by one. Dicky left seven hours ago, and since then Nicky had been alone in Corinne's house.

It was horrible. He felt so vulnerable, like anything would get him crying. Someone could come in with the ingredients for his absolute favorite meal to cook, and he could just roll over on his bed and cry his eyes out.

Corinne would be back soon, and then he would leave for Oakland, California. Dawn had of course been the first to leave. Now she was in Florida, living in St. Petersburg. Yesterday Ricky moved to New York City, and just earlier today Dicky went to Bismarck in North Dakota.

Any minute now... Any minute now he would leave Colorado, and so there would be no quad left.

Any minute...

Very soon...

Any second...

The door opened, and Nicky's heart dropped. He didn't want to leave Colorado. He lived there! But his whole family was gone. Tom and Anne were probably dead, the other quads were in states on opposite sides of the country, and no one knew about Squishy Paws. He had probably died along with their parents.

Corinne came into the room and saw Nicky laying on his side in the bed.

"Are you ready to go?"

Nicky nodded, slightly, just so you could see it. He slowly swung his legs down on the side, and sat up. Sighing, he followed Corinne out to the car. They got in, and Corinne started driving out of Boulder. Nicky was now leaving all of his memories behind, and flying to California.

* * *

The first thing Nicky noticed after stepping off the bus just outside Oakland was the heat. It was extremely hot and sunny for being March.

Nicky was sweating in his long sleeve shirt, and he hoped the family lived close by. They were by a big supermarket, surrounded by palm trees. Nicky had never seen anything like it. Palm trees! Just growing all around! It was incredible but weird at the same time.

When Nicky turned around he saw Corinne gesturing for him to follow her. She was at the beginning of a slope leading up to some houses. Nicky caught up, and they started walking up in silence.

The sun was basically frying Nicky, and only the thin shadows of the palm trees could defend him. He managed to count it up to five houses above the slope.

"Here we are," Corinne stopped by the second house.

Much like the other four houses, it was a big, two storey villa. The planks on the outside were painted light blue, and the facades were white. There was a big porch, and in the middle of that, the big double door was. A big garden led up to the house. Toys and things were scattered all over the yard. Tricycles and bikes stood in a line next to the porch, and a minivan stood on the driveway.

"Welcome to the Thorntons."

The house seemed like a happy place, and Nicky felt hopeful walking up the pebbled path. Corinne pressed the doorbell, and a light 'Ding dong' was heard. Soon the door was opened by a curvy woman. A big smile spread across her face when she saw Nicky.

She was pale blonde, and about as tall as Corinne. Her eyes were a greenish blue, and they seemed as happy as eyes could be. There were excited dimples on her cheeks.  
She wore a red dress with white dots, which perfectly showed off her curvy body.

"Hello, Nicholas!" she talked excitedly and clearly. Almost like Nicky was a little child who wouldn't understand otherwise.

"Hi," Nicky couldn't avoid slightly smiling at her happiness.

"I'm Cassandra," the woman reached her hand out, and Nicky shook it hesitantly.

She turned her head back, and shouted into the living room.

"Ryder!"

A man walked into the hall. His hair was just as blonde as Cassandra's, but his eyes were hazel. He wore a pale green t-shirt and black jeans.

"Oh, hey Nicholas," Ryder sounded like he had known Nicky his entire life. He felt more like a friend than a father, and Nicky liked that.

"Do you want to meet the kids?", Cassandra asked, still smiling.

Nicky already felt pretty comfortable there, and so he nodded. Cassandra smiled even wider, and walked over to the start of a staircase.

"Kids! Nicholas is here!"

A few seconds later as many as six children came running down. They were all pale blond, with either greenish blue or hazel eyes. All Nicky could think was '_How could they handle this many different age kids, and now him too?'_. Cassandra and Ryder started introducing all their kids. Ryder walked up to the oldest girl.

"This is Kaeli."

Kaeli was clearly on the older side of her teenage years. A second later Ryder revealed she was seventeen. Kaeli had her long, wavy hair tied up in a ponytail, high up on her head. She stood with her arms crossed, covering the print on her cropped hoodie. Her mouth was slightly moving constantly, and Nicky assumed she was chewing gum.

"This is Andreas. He's fifteen," Cassandra pointed at a boy, sitting down in an armchair. Andreas' hair just covered his ears. He (unlike Kaeli) was actually looking at Nicky, and he was smiling.

"Hey, Nicholas."

It was first now Nicky put any thought into the fact that they used his full name.

"Oh, I don't really use my full name. I'm Nicky."

The Thorntons nodded, and Cassandra & Ryder continued presenting.

"This is Braelynn. She's the closest to your age."

The big smile on one of the girls' faces revealed she was the one Cassandra was talking about. Braelynn stood with a straight back, and big smile. She had shoulder length, straight hair and lovely blue eyes. Although she didn't say anything, Nicky understood she was a happy, social girl.

"And these are our troublemakers."

Ryder stood in between a boy and a girl. They were both a little shorter than Nicky, and looked incredibly alike. They had both straight, but thick hair, and hazel eyes.

"Mason and Mabel. Ten year old twins!"

"I'm the oldest," Mason grinned.

"By 42 seconds!" Mabel laughed.

They sounded just like Dawn and Ricky, except they were joking and not mad at each other. Nicky felt his smile slowly fade, being reminded of his siblings.

"Is everything okay, sweetie?" Cassandra seemed worried.

Nicky shook it off, and nodded as they got to the last introduction.

"This little shy girl is our youngest daughter, Staycee."

Staycee hid behind her mother's leg, nervously smiling. She was truly an adorable little kid. Blonde hair in space buns accessorized with bows, greenish blue eyes, and a little white dress with bunnies on it.

"Staycee's four, and she's a little shy. But don't worry about it, she'll warm up to you."

Nicky smiled at the little girl. Of course she would warm up to him. If this would be his new family, she had to. They could never _really_ become his family, but they were the best possible.

* * *

Anne woke up on cold stone floor. Everything hurt, and she found herself barely able to move.

The room was dark, and she couldn't see anything but the floor, walls, roof and a locked door. The only source of light was a tiny window on that door. Where was she?

A few meters away from her, Tom was laying. After looking around for a few seconds she also noticed Squishy Paws cowering in a corner.

What had happened?

Anne used her all to come up with the last thing she remembered, and after a while she got it.

She had been watching a TV show with Tom when she suddenly smelled smoke. It seemed like it was coming from every direction. The kitchen, the door, upstairs, everywhere. Both her and Tom had panicked when they found fire in every part of the house. Their phones were in the kitchen, burning, so they hadn't been able to call the police. The front door caught in flames, and they were trapped in the fire.

That was the last thing she could recall. Then she woke up here.

Suddenly it struck her. What had happened to the kids!? They had been in school when it happened! Did they even know what had happened? How much time had passed? It could have been three hours, just as well as it could have been three days.

The whole situation was too much to handle. Anne just wanted to lay back down, and forget about everything. She wanted to wake up in her bed, get the kids, and do something fun with them. Could this please just be a horribly realistic nightmare...

Anne hoped that was the case as she laid back down on the hard floor, and fell back asleep.


	6. The First Week

"Get yourself over here!"

Scarlette's furious voice echoed through the Rallison house. Dawn didn't dare to do anything but run downstairs. She had already taken too long putting on a shirt. In a second she was down the stairs, running into the living room.

The quads had only been living with their foster families for a week, but Dawn's life was already a nightmare. After just a couple of days Scarlette and Michael put off the 'nice parent' act.

Dawn found out what Wynter meant by "y_ou don't want to be here_", and it was horrible.

Scarlette and Michael were abusive. They bossed the children around, and when they didn't do what they were told, or when they did it wrong, they got punishment. That punishment would always be hits, slaps or punches. Those hurtful things would also happen whenever the parents got mad. They would get mad at the tiniest things, go straight up to the kids' rooms, and take it out.

It could go from threatening words to violence in just seconds, and you never saw it coming. The second Dawn and Wynter heard loud footsteps in the hall, they would cower in a corner, or hide wherever they could.

Dawn had gotten put into Wynter's room, as it was much bigger than Kevin's. Wynter hadn't complained, she just seemed happy and relieved to not be alone.

When Dawn got into the living room, Scarlette stood behind the couch. She looked liked a mess, and she was smoking mad.

"What took you so long!?"

"I'm so, so sorry, I just woke up twenty minutes ago. I had to put on a shirt," Dawn rambled.

"That's no excuse! I told you a century ago to get here!"

Dawn nervously nodded. Her head was turned towards Scarlette, but her eyes were looking at the floor.

"Wh-wha-what did you want?"

Scarlette snorted.

"I need help to move the couch."

Dawn nodded again, and trotted over to one end of the couch. Scarlette went to the other end, and they started pushing it over to the wall. The couch was heavy, and Dawn felt her arms go numb. She stopped for a second. What happened next revealed that that was a big mistake.

"What are you doing?" Scarlette stared at her. She had also stopped pushing.

"I... I was just... My arms... they... hurt a bit," Dawn nervously twisted her hands.

Scarlette rolled her eyes and walked over to Dawn. She gave her a harsh slap on her jaw, before going back to the couch's end.

* * *

The Fishers sat around the round glass table, eating a well-made pasta carbonara. Ricky thought it was way fancier than anything Nicky had ever made, but it surely didn't taste as good.

It didn't taste like _home_. Ricky felt more like he was eating at a well-known Italian restaurant, but he was in fact in the penthouse. Gabrielle, Sam and Meghan sat beside Ricky, quietly eating.

The dinner table had _never_ been this quiet in the Harper house. Whether it was talking, laughing or arguing, there had never been _silence_.

The Fishers seemed like they were used to the silence. They just ate, and barely made eye contact. It made Ricky uncomfortable. He just wanted to get away from the table, and maybe read in his room, so he started eating quicker. Gabrielle put her fork of top of his, stopping him.

"We don't eat hastily at the dinner table, Richard," she looked very serious about the matter "Now, show me how it's supposed to be done."

Ricky slowly jabbed the fork into his food, and put some pasta in his mouth.

A couple of minutes later Ricky ate the last piece. He was already full after just a few bites, but he had early on learned that leaving food on the plate was not an option.

"Well, I'm done," Ricky stood up.

"Finished," Sam corrected.

"_Finished_, then."

Ricky took his plate and went over to the kitchen. It was very important for the Fishers that you washed your plate after eating. Ricky turned on the tap water, and washed the plate off. He aggressively rubbed away a piece of dried sauce, pretending it was Meghan's face.

Meghan reminded him of Madison, The But-er. She constantly had to be better than him, and the worst part was that Madison actually was. Every single thing Ricky did good, Meghan did amazingly.

Meghan spoke a lot of languages, could do a lot of sports, played five instruments, and was incredibly smart. And of course, she was a fancy kid, and wanted everything perfect. She was just like her parents.

* * *

Dicky had gotten tired of the constant arguing in the McDaniel house. Wherever he tried to hide, Isobel and Marcus' angry voices echoed through the bungalow. Alec, Douglas and Steph were also tired of it, but they had been living like that long enough to not care as much.

Whenever Isobel and Marcus started screaming at each other, the four kids would just leave for their rooms. They shared two and two, with Dicky and Alec in one room, and Douglas and Steph in the other.

Dicky lay on his bed, listening to the parents arguing on the other side of the wall. It was just too much. On multiple occasions Isobel and Marcus seemed to forget Dicky was even there.

"I told you several times before! We can't handle this!" Dicky was so tired of hearing Marcus' yelling voice everyday.

"We would be able to if you did _anything_ else but sitting on that chair, working all the time!", Isobel yelled back.

"I'm working to keep this family alive!"

"Well, we have four children now, and they need care!"

"They have you!"

"I have work too!"

"Well, so do I, and like I've said all this time, we can't handle another kid!"

"Then maybe we should just give him back to that social worker!"

Those words made Dicky's heart sink, and he felt a tear roll down his cheek. Why did they even volunteer to foster him? They were obviously on the edge of divorcing. Clearly not the stage to take in one more kid in the family.

Their biological kids were amazing though. They were kind, funny and were pretty good at making him forget the sadness of the situation. Steph had once asked him:

"What's it like being a quad?"

At first, Dicky didn't know how to answer. He had never really thought about what it was _like_, it had just been like that. He had taken being a quad for granted. After a couple of seconds he had answered:

"It's fun - really fun. There's always someone who's there for you. And although we fight... a lot... we know we love each other."

* * *

Although Nicky's first impression of the Thorntons was good, he had soon realized what type of family they were. They were extremely messy. Even messier than the Harper's, and that's saying something. For the whole week Nicky had been there, he hadn't heard more than five minutes of silence, nor had he gotten any time or attention to talk about his experience.

The kids weren't very well-behaved either. When Cassandra decided Nicky would be sleeping in Braelynn's room, Braelynn had freaked out. She was a nice girl, but _definitely_ didn't want him in there, and she had yelled and argued for an hour, before angrily slamming the door to her room (which was now also Nicky's).

It didn't take long before she got over it though, and she wasn't as mad about the situation. She had been very clear that she didn't _want_ him to share a room with him, but it didn't bother her too much.

They had become kind of good friends, and enjoyed talking to each other.

Mason and Mabel weren't too bad either. They were really funny, even though they argued a lot (not the level of arguing the quads could get on though). The only bad thing about them was how much they reminded Nicky about Dawn, Ricky and Dicky. How they argued, how they talked to each other and others. It was just a bit too much.

Nicky sat in Braelynn's desk chair. He had some homework he had to do from his new school, but it was impossibly hard. Ten minutes ago Nicky had asked Cassandra to help him, but she was still gone doing something with the twins.

Braelynn was away at dance practice, and the two oldest were out with friends. Ryder was still at work, and so Nicky was alone with Cassandra, Mason, Mabel and Staycee.

For one of the first times in his life, he was the oldest kid in the house. It felt weird. At home he had always complained about being the youngest, but now... he missed it. He missed the attention he got as the youngest. On some days with the Thornton's he was even the oldest one in the house. The three oldest kids had a lot of after school activities, and Cassandra & Ryder had work. That meant Nicky was left there to babysit the younger kids.

Luckily Cassandra was often home.

Finally she walked into Nicky and Braelynn's room.

"I'm sorry, what did you want Nicky?"

Nicky sat right up in the chair, and picked his pen up.

"Well, it's just this math homewo-"

"MOOOOOM!" Mason's voice came from the room across the hall. Cassandra sighed.

"I'm sorry, Nicky. I have to go break up the twins' fight."

She already knew what was going on, and left the room. This happened constantly. Cassandra was just about to do something with Nicky, when someone yelled '_Mom!'_, and she would leave.

Nicky felt less important than everyone else.

* * *

**If you've noticed anything weird with the picture for the story, like it's constantly switching from the picture, to my profile picture, to nothing at all, it's because it's for some reason acting up.**

**It just won't stick!**

**It's annoying the heck out of me, but I just can't fix it.**


	7. Sweet, Sweet Freedom

Tom, Anne and Squishy Paws sat on the floor of a truck. They were on the move, going somewhere. Neither Tom, nor Anne knew where they were, who was driving, or where they were going. They couldn't even see each other, since they had blindfolds on. Their arms were also tied behind their backs.

Whoever had them in their truck hadn't bothered doing anything about Squishy, and he was free to roam around in the truck. The person in the driver seat obviously didn't know what Squishy could do.

"Come here, Squish," Tom didn't know exactly where Squishy was, but he just needed him to come to him. He heard paws coming towards him. When the paws to the truck floor stopped, Tom twisted around. Judging from the place the sound came from, his back was now facing the dog.

"Tom, what are you doing?" telling from Anne's tone of voice, she was confused.

"Executing my master plan," he got back to Squishy. "Squishy... Tug of war!"

He held up his hands as high as he could behind him. Squishy Paws immediately attacked the rope tying Tom's hands together. String by string, the rope started breaking.

Very soon, Tom's hands were free, and he removed the blindfold. Anne picked up on it.

"Squishy! Squish! Tug of war!"

Squishy ran over to Anne, and did the same thing. Anne removed her blindfold, and ran over to hug Tom.

"Now we just need to get out of this truck."

"How do we do that?"

Anne thought for a second, while she looked around. The lock on the door gave her an idea.

"Do I have any bobby pins in my hair?"

As Tom started looking for a bobby pin, he remembered one time when Dicky had started up a ten minute conversation about why it couldn't be called something like jeff pin, or tom pin.

He laughed for himself, but at the same time, thinking about the kids hurt like a stab in the abdomen.

"Here's one!" he pulled a little bobby pin out of her hair.

Anne took it straight of his hand.

"The next time we stop, we'll pick the lock, and get out of this truck."

* * *

The truck stopped first an hour later.

Tom and Anne could hear the driver getting out of the truck, and so they ran over to the door. Anne put her bobby pin in the lock, and started twisting it around. She was no master at lock-picking, but after a couple of minutes, it worked.

A slight click was heard, and the door slowly swung open. They could see they were on top of a short hill, by a thin road. Just about twenty meters away, there was a pine forest.

Anne was the first out, and she carefully peeked around the corner of the truck. The driver stood a few meters away from the truck, and Anne could just see him walk to the other side.

This was their chance. Anne gestured to Tom that he should come out. Tom hopped out, closely followed by Squishy, and he quietly closed the truck door. Along with Anne and the dog, he ran down the side of the hill, and they threw themselves down on their stomachs. The driver was just in their sight, with his back turned, luckily. He was talking to someone on the phone, but Tom and Anne couldn't make out any particular words. All they caught up was that the man seemed to be making a deal with someone.

After talking for a few minutes, the man got back into the truck, and started driving away.

Tom and Anne were finally free, but they had no idea where they were. They could be anywhere in America, if not anywhere the world!

They decided to just follow the narrow road until they found something. A town, a city, a village, or just a house. Anything.

* * *

**This chapter is short, but I originally planned to have it as a part of chapter 6. That would be _too_ long though, so this is its own chapter.**


	8. Sorry, Business, Celebration

Cassandra walked up the stairs in the Thornton villa. She felt nervous, even though she was just going to talk to Nicky.

It had been a month since he moved in, and Cassandra felt like she wasn't giving him as much attention as the others. Her own kids were very messy, and so Nicky hadn't gotten the affection he needed in his situation.

After his parents had probably died, and his siblings had moved to other sides of the country, he really needed all the attention and love he possibly could get. But in this house those were the only two things he wasn't getting.

All Nicky got to do was watch the younger kids, and hang out with Braelynn. He needed a vacation from it, and so did everyone else. That was exactly what Cassandra was going to discuss with him.

She knocked on the white door twice, and heard Nicky's voice from inside saying: "_Come in_". He sounded bored.

Cassandra opened, and went into the room. She closed the door behind her. Nicky lay in his bed in the corner. He held nothing in his hands, and just looked out the window.

"Hey, Nicky..."

"Hi..."

Cassandra walked over and sat down on the end of the bed.

"Look, there's something I need to ask you. Something fun," she smiled.

Nicky turned his head. He wasn't smiling or anything, but Cassandra could tell from his eyes he was interested.

"You've been with us for a month now, and I think it's time to do some kind of celebration."

Nicky smiled slightly.

"What celebration?"

"I was thinking of going somewhere."

Nicky's smile faded a bit, like he was disappointed.

"Like the theme park a mile from here?"

Cassandra shook her head.

"I want to go out of the state. Somewhere else in America."

Nicky lit up, and sat right up in the bed.

"Where? What state?"

Cassandra smiled.

"I was thinking... that you should decide that."

Nicky's jaw dropped. He could possibly meet one of his siblings. This was amazing!

Then he realized it. He could _possibly_ meet _one_ of his siblings. Just one. His smile faded. How could he possibly choose between them.

"What's wrong, sweetie?"

Nicky shook his head.

"Nothing. At least nothing you can do anything about"

Cassandra nodded. She seemed a little concerned, but knew not to start asking too many questions.

"Do you know where you want to go?"

Nicky shrugged, and thought a little more. He couldn't choose between his siblings, but he could choose which state he wanted to go to the most.

"Cassandra... I think I know where I want to go."

Cassandra seemed happy again.

"Where is it then?"

"Can we go to St. Petersburg in Florida?"

"Of course we can!" Cassandra smiled her widest. "I'll tell the others, and book a flight and hotel!"

She happily trotted out of the room, and closed the door, looking in at Nicky with the happy smile. He couldn't help but smile back.

He had a chance of seeing Dawn! Just knowing he could meet one of his lost quads gave him a kick of happiness.

* * *

"Richard, could you please come to the living room!"

Ricky sighed. Each time Gabrielle shouted for people to come into the living room, it was a serious matter. She was not a shouter. If there was anything, she would go into your room, and tell you quickly, before walking away in a posh matter.

Ricky swung his legs off his bed, and went out of the room. Gabrielle sat on the couch already, and so did Sam and Meghan.

"Sit, Richard," Sam talked to him like he was a dog, and gestured with his hand to an armchair on the opposite side of the coffee table. Ricky knew better than to misbehave, and sat right down in it.

"Now Richard, there's an important thing you need to know," Gabrielle looked neither excited, nor concerned. She was pretty emotionless.

"What?" Ricky was annoyed. He was constantly annoyed with this family. How posh and fancy they were, how "perfect" they constantly seemed, and how much they corrected him. _Every single thing_ he did wrong, they made him redo in the way they thought was "correct".

"Father's going on a business trip to St. Petersburg. It's in Florida." Meghan brushed some hair off her shoulder.

"I know where St. Petersburg is. And why are you making this such a big deal?" Ricky frowned.

"We're going with him."

Ricky's jaw dropped. Both in excitement and shock.

Dawn was in St. Petersburg, Florida. He could possibly meet her! This was the best thing that could happen. Ecstatic, Ricky ran back into his room, to pack some essentials.

* * *

Dicky, Alec, Douglas and Steph sat on the couch in the living room. Isobel and Marcus stood a couple of meters away from them, leaning against the wall. They had told the kids they had an important announcement. The children were certain they were going to tell them they were getting a divorce.

"So... Why did you call us here?", Douglas asked.

"We have something to tell you," Isobel brushed a loop of hair from her forehead.

"I knew it. You're splitting," Alec crossed his arms and leaned back.

Both of the parents shook their heads, but it was clear they weren't really denying the fact. Marcus spoke up this time.

"That is not what this is about."

All four kids looked up at them, confused.

"Then what is it about?" Dicky was the most confused.

Isobel sighed.

"We... We know our arguing has been affecting you, and this was probably the worst welcome ever to a home."

Dicky nodded.

"Yes it was," he was brutally honest.

"We understand that, and we want to say sorry," Marcus slowly nodded.

Steph raised her eyebrows.

"So all you wanted to do was call us here and say sorry?"

"Yes and no. We want to ask you if you wanted to like... go on a trip?" Isobel looked at the kids, unsure. "We would like to do that for you as an apology."

The kids looked at each other, happy and excited.

"Yes!"

"Where?"

Isobel and Marcus smiled, for what seemed like the first time in a month.

"We were thinking of going to Florida."

Dicky gasped.

"That's perfect!"

He could maybe see Dawn if they went to St. Petersburg. This was perfect!


	9. Illusions at Hollanders

Tom and Anne had been walking forever. They had stopped in countless tiny towns and villages, and from that they knew they were in Florida. One kind man who had given them food also told them they were pretty close to St. Petersburg.

And so Tom and Anne decided that that was where they were heading. In a big city like that they could possibly make some money, and get back to Boulder.

They had walked... and walked... and walked... and walked, without any success in finding a big city. Was that man really telling them the truth? How close were they to St. Petersburg for real?

Even if they had no idea, they had no choice but to keep walking. Stopping on the road would be even worse. They just had to walk. Hitchhikers had gotten a too bad reputation from all the kidnapping stories, so no one wanted to pick them up while they drove by.

So walk was just what they did. All the way until they started seeing houses, shops, and soon the big city of St. Petersburg.

* * *

Ricky was relieved to sit on the other side of the airplane aisle from the Fishers. He was finally able to do something but listen to them telling him what they could do, but he couldn't. This three hour plane ride would be the best time of the month he had lived in New York City.

He had brought the best book he found in the Fisher's tiny home library, and for the _whole_ ride to Florida, he was going to read it.

The only kind of bad thing were the people sitting next to him. A mother and her three year old. Ricky hoped with all he had that the kid wouldn't talk to him. How annoying would that be?

"Richard, you have everything you need?"

Ricky looked over at Gabrielle, who was sitting the closest to him.

"Yes. I do," he sighed and rolled his eyes before going back to his book.

Gabrielle lightly smacked his arm with a magazine.

"Not that attitude."

Ricky rolled his eyes again, without letting Gabrielle see. He looked back at her, and faked a smile.

"Okay then. Of course I do, Gabrielle."

It was clear Ricky was annoyed, and faked the good behavior at the time. He sat back in his seat, as the plane started lifting. His ears got blocked for a while, and he got pressed against the back of his seat, before they got up into the air.

The ear block came loose, and Ricky could lean forward again, burying his eyes in the book.

* * *

"Give me the chocolate bar!" Mabel fumbled her hands around, trying to get a bar of chocolate out of Mason's hand. Cassandra was actively trying to stop them from tearing each other apart from her seat next to them.

"Mabel, you said you didn't want chocolate when we were at the airport!"

"I want it now!"

"But, sweetie, that's Mason's chocolate."

Mason frowned at his twin sister, and took a bite from the chocolate. Mabel let go of her grip on Mason's hands, and angrily sat back.

Behind her, Nicky, Braelynn and Andreas sat, just listening to the intense fight in front of them. Nothing could ever be calm with the Thornton's around. Multiple passengers in the seats around the twins and Cassandra looked over at them, annoyed.

Cassandra was desperately trying to calm the arguing twins down, to no luck, and everyone else in the family just sat around, embarrassed over the chaos. Nicky had hoped for a nice, quiet plane ride. That was as far away from the case as you could go. He turned his head, and looked out the window. At least he had the window seat and the view to calm him down. He took a deep breath, and felt himself going more calm.

Only four hours of riding the plane left. They had been on there for two hours, and it was a six hour ride. Nicky could take it. At least he hoped he could.

* * *

Dicky sat in between Alec and Douglas. Steph, Isobel and Marcus sat on the other side of the aisle. They were on the third hour of their six hour flight to St. Petersburg.

The flight was pretty good. Nothing really bothered the kids, except Isobel and Marcus' whisper argument. They wanted to do different things in Florida. The kids had decided all the ideas, and now it was their job to decide which of their crazy plans to actually do.

Of course they couldn't agree on it.

Alec and Douglas had a lively conversation on each side of Dicky. Dicky didn't feel like joining in, and just sat there, staring at the seat in front of him.

Now that he actually was on the flight, he didn't feel half as sure that he would meet Dawn. What were the chances, St. Petersburg isn't exactly small?

"Dicky... what's up?" Alec sounded worried.

Dicky shook his head.

"Nothing. I was just thinking...," he tried to sound convincing, but felt himself that he failed.

Douglas slowly nodded.

"Thinking about the quads, huh?"

That was kind of it. He had only been thinking about Dawn at the moment, but when Douglas mentioned them, Dicky couldn't help but think about Nicky and Ricky too.

He nodded, because it was true now.

Suddenly, he got a lump in his throat. Alec, Douglas and Steph had kept him from thinking about them too much, and it had helped him so much. It had been a while since Dicky _really_ thought much about his lost siblings, and how much he missed them. There was nothing he could do to stop a tear from rolling down his cheek.

All he wanted right now was to see them. At least one of them. Just one!

* * *

After six long hours of sitting on a plane, the Thornton family stepped into the airport building. Breathing something else than the compact airplane air was wonderful.

Nicky felt great. He was in St. Petersburg. The same town as Dawn! For the first time in a month, he could see her. That exciting feeling didn't let go for a long time. At the airport, during the bus ride, or when they got to the hotel.

The hotel was a big brick building. Over the entrance on the porch there was a big black shade, with the text '_Hollander Hotel_'. It was a pretty expensive place to stay, but Cassandra and Ryder agreed that it was the best.

As they stepped into the lobby, the entire family felt the prize was worth it. The floor was like a mosaic of different colored marble, there were big plants everywhere, and a big staircase leading up to the rooms.

"We'll go get our keys, you can stay there," Ryder pointed towards some couches and armchairs by a fireplace.

The seven kids agreed, and went over there, while Ryder and Cassandra went over to the reception.

Nicky threw himself onto an armchair, laughing as both him and Braelynn wanted it. Braelynn gave him a sarcastic angry face, and sat down in one of the couches instead. Their laughs kept on going for a few seconds, before Nicky saw something in the corner of his right eye. He stopped laughing immediately, and turned his head hastily. His entire body shifted in the armchair when he turned.

There was nothing there, but for a second he could have _sworn _he saw Dicky by the reception.

Well, it wasn't that weird. Many, many times this month he had had the illusion of seeing one the quads in California. Every single time it had been an illusion, or someone who just looked alike.

It was nothing. It couldn't have been...

* * *

Ricky followed close after the Fishers. They walked a couple of meters in front of him, like they were ashamed of being seen together with him. Even though he was dressed in the same fancy manner as them, and was clearly _kind of_ a part of the family.

Sam led the family into the hotel they were staying at during the business trip. The Hollander hotel. It was almost as fancy as the Fisher's penthouse apartment, but just almost.

"Richard, follow us," Ricky didn't like how Gabrielle only bothered to tell him to follow. It was like she didn't have faith in him, but she trusted Meghan. A month was way too long for not having built trust yet.

The family walked into the reception, and approached the lady behind the counter.

"Hello, and welcome to the Hollander hotel. How can I help you?"

"We booked two rooms here for seven days. We're the Fishers," the left side of Ryder's lip raised into a slight smile.

The lady nodded, and started looking through her computer.

"The Fishers... Room 34 and 35?" she sounded concentrated.

"Yes, that would be right."

The lady crouched down and got a pair of keys from under the counter. She gave the keys to the Fisher's, and Ricky could just notice a slight hint of disgust in her face. Ricky was clearly not the only one who didn't like them. As they turned around to go to their rooms, Ricky got a glimpse of someone rounding a corner.

Was it Nicky?

No... it couldn't have been. Nicky was in California. And Nicky couldn't possibly be the only dark brown-haired kid in the United States with bright green jeans. There was no way. That was just some random kid with dark brown hair and violently colored clothes.

It had to be that way...


	10. The Best Collision

The first night at the Hollander hotel had been nice for all three boy quads. They all slept there, without knowing about each others' prescense. Each one of them thought they were alone there, with their families. But they were not.

Dicky woke up in his bed. He felt something holding onto his shoulders, and when he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a smiling Alec.

"Finally, you're awake."

Dicky's hand automatically moved up to rub his eye.

"Everyone has already gone to eat breakfast, get up dude," Alec removed Dicky's blanket for him.

Unwillingly, Dicky sat up and hopped out of his hotel bed. Alec was already dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, standing by the little wardrobe. Dicky dragged his feet over there, and swung the doors open. One of the shirts he had packed fell out of the wardrobe, and so it was chosen for the day.

"Hurry up, turtle," Alec laughed as Dicky put the shirt on him.

After a minute, Dicky was dressed, and they were on their way to the hotel restaurant. The carpeted floor felt weird under Dicky's feet. It was like he was outside on grass or something.

They reached the restaurant, and Alec quickly spotted the other four by a window. He pointed them out for Dicky, and they went over there.

"Good morning, Dicky," Isobel smiled, but it was clear it was fake. She looked like she was trying to seem happy, but really wasn't.

"Good morning," Dicky's smile however, was real.

Alec and him sat down on two chairs. Steph looked at them excitedly.

"Mom and dad said we're gonna go somewhere in town today!"

Dicky and Alec started smiling too. They nodded to each other.

"Sounds good."

There was a short, awkward silence. No one really had anything to say.

"Boys, you did lock the door, right?" Marcus looked up from his tomato sandwich.

Dicky and Alec gave each other a quick look, asking each other if they had done it by doing so. Both of them realized they hadn't.

"One of you, hurry off and lock it."

"I'll do it," Dicky stood up from his chair and turned around. As he walked away he could hear Isobel quietly telling Marcus off for making one of them do it.

He didn't care about having to go back.

* * *

At the same time Nicky left room 27. All of the other Thorntons were already at breakfast, but he didn't feel hungry at the time. He told them he would come in a few minutes, and now was the time.

The blueberry pancakes from the breakfast menu (Braelynn sent a picture) had sounded very tempting, and now he _needed_ some. He walked down the corridor, approaching where it divided in three directions. The rooms, the bathrooms, and the restaurant.

What Nicky didn't know was that right at that moment, Ricky stepped out of the men's bathroom, and Dicky was coming from the restaurant. Unaware of each other, the Harper boys walked down their parts of the corridor, all looking down at their feet.

Then Ricky looked up when they were a couple of meters away from each other. What he saw made him gasp loudly, and caused his eyes to fill up with tears. Ricky's gasp made Nicky and Dicky look up to, and when they did, they had almost the exact same reaction. As their eyes watered too, they stared at each other in indescribable happiness. All three of them ran the last meters to each other, and threw their arms around each other.

"Oh my gosh!" Nicky wiped a tear away with his yellow sleeve.

"I can't believe this!" Ricky sobbed with happiness tears.

"But, what are you guys doing here?" Dicky looked at them as they let go into more of a quaddle than a hug.

"We went here for my foster dad's business trip."

"My foster mom let me choose where I wanted to go, as a celebration trip that I had been with them for a month."

"Isobel and Marcus fight all the time, so they got this trip as an apology for us."

The boys all nodded at each other's reasons, while still smiling and crying. They tightened their grip around each other, and hugged again.

Alec, Meghan and Braelynn then came from the restaurant corridor. All three of them stopped right in their tracks when they saw the boys in the fork of the corridor.

"Dicky, what are you doing?" Alec was obviously confused.

"Richard, who are these people?" Meghan was just as demented.

"Nicky, are they your brothers?" Braelynn was no different.

Nicky, Ricky and Dicky all let go of each other, and turned towards their foster siblings.

"I'm hugging my siblings," Dicky wiped a tear away.

"_Meghan_, these are my brothers," Ricky explained

Meghan, Braelynn and Alec all looked at the quads, shocked and confused. Braelynn was the first to speak up, and actually do something.

"That's amazing!" she walked up to Ricky and Dicky. "Hey! I'm Braelynn."

Ricky reached out his hand, and shook Braelynn's.

"Ricky. And not _Richard,_" he gave Meghan an annoyed glance.

"I'm Dicky."

Alec walked up to them, smiling.

"And I'm Alec."

"Nicky."

"Ricky."

Meghan kept her place a couple of meters away from them. She looked nervous in a way, like she wanted to go up to them, but couldn't. Ricky noticed this.

"Meghan, is something wrong?"

Immediately, Meghan looked away.

"N-... No."

Ricky tilted his head.

"Look, Meghan. There's clearly something not right. You can tell us."

A tear rolled down Meghan's face.

"Okay...," she took a deep breath. "I've just... always wanted a sibling, and now I kind of got one... But it didn't feel right. Mother and father ruined it for me, and they made me act just like them."

Everyone looked confused, except Ricky, who seemed kind of shocked.

"Really, Meghan?"

Meghan nodded.

"Now that I saw you with your siblings, I just like... realized what it should be like, and how much you love them... but hate me."

"I don't hate you...," Ricky tried to sound comforting as he walked up to Meghan. She gave him a quick '_are-you-serious'_ look.

"Okay, I kind of did. But not anymore."

Meghan smiled, and so did everyone else. Silence followed for almost a minute. But it wasn't awkward. It felt nice. Alec suddenly flinched.

"Shouldn't we like... go back to our families, and see each other later?"

Everyone else seemed to like that suggestion. They got together with their foster sibling, and walked off in different directions in the restaurant.


	11. Free at Last

The Rallisons walked down the streets of St. Petersburg. Scarlette and Michael were a meter away from the three kids, who still cowered from them. Just one wrong move could lead to being _punished_ at home later.

"We need strawberries for the cake," Michael was reading the five inch shopping list. "We're close to the supermarket, we can go there."

He took a sharp turn to the right, leading the family up another road. Dawn, Wynter and Kevin followed, not protesting one bit. They were bored, tired, and just wanted to go home, but they knew better than to speak their minds.

Very soon, they reached the supermarket on the street corner. The kids were about to step in when Scarlette turned around and put her hand in front of them, as a stop move.

"Kids, you wait outside. We'll be back soon."

Unwillingly, the three children walked over to the wall, and leaned on it. Scarlette and Michael left them there like dog owners did with their dogs. The kids were never allowed to follow the parents into supermarkets. The reason for it, they had not gotten to know. Maybe it was to let them know they had no power to control what food was in the house...

* * *

Dawn kicked the gravel by her feet. Her, Wynter and Kevin had only been standing out there for five minutes, but since there was nothing to do, it felt like way more. All they could do was stand there, talk, and people-watch.

A lot of strange-looking people walked by. More than you would think. They saw a woman with rainbow colored hair, a guy with tattoos all over his face, and a girl in a feather-covered dress. That was just scratching the surface of everyone they saw.

"Look at that girl," Wynter discreetly pointed at a woman on the other side of the road.

The woman had black hair, which was put up into a weird braided hairstyle, wore only white clothes, and tattoos on her arms. She was doing something on her phone.

Dawn laughed quietly for herself and the Rallison kids.

"She looks both weird... and super cool. And I _love_ that hairstyle."

"Totally," Wynter nodded.

Kevin didn't really understand what they were doing, but he laughed too.

The fun didn't last long though, and the cool looking girl walked away. All of the other people on the street looked pretty boring, and basic. Dawn looked around trying to find something, or someone, that could entertain them. Boring girls, boring boys, dogs being walked, a little cat walking down the street, and...

When Dawn spotted them, her mind was blown. She gasped, while her eyes teared up with joy. The two people she was looking at hadn't seem to notice her yet, but Wynter and Kevin certainly had.

"Dawn, what's going on?"

Dawn turned her head, and saw the confused Wynter. Dawn searched for her breath, she was too happy to speak, and pointed towards the people who had gotten her so overjoyed.

"You see that blonde woman, and balding man over there."

Wynter and Kevin leaned out to look down the street.

"Yeah?"

Dawn let out a tiny gasp again.

"They're my parents!"

Wynter's jaw dropped, and she smiled the biggest smile ever.

"For real? Dawn that's amazing!" she bounced a little in place. "You have to go there!"

Dawn was full on happy-crying now.

"I know. And I will."

She was just about to turn around and run over there when she remembered something.

"Wynter, Kevin, I will never forget you. And I promise that I will do something about your situation. Whatever I can possibly do, I will do. I'll get you out of there."

Both Rallison siblings nodded. Wynter had tears in her eyes, but Kevin didn't really understand.

"We're gonna miss you... so much!" Wynter wiped a tear, and hugged Dawn.

They hugged for a couple of seconds, before Dawn crouched down to Kevin's level.

"Kev, I'm gonna leave now, but I promise I'll save you from your parents, and we will see each other again!"

"O... okay," Kevin sounded sad, even though he wasn't really picking up. He put his arms around Dawn, and they hugged for a few seconds.

Dawn let go, and stood in front of the siblings for a few seconds.

"You've been amazing siblings. Bye!"

She wiped a tear from her cheek as she turned around, and ran. Ran, as fast as she possibly could, all the way over to Tom and Anne.

"Mom! Dad!"

She cried out in happiness as she ran the last meters to her parents. Tom and Anne heard her voice. They gave each other a quick confused look, before turning their heads around. Dawn was running in full speed at them.

"Oh my gosh, Dawn!" Anne ran towards her, and they met in the biggest hug ever. Tom ran over to them, and made it a group hug.

"Sweetie, you have no idea how much we've worried about you"

"We've been worried sick! What happened to you guys? How has it been?"

Dawn sobbed. Both happiness, and horror filled her as she thought about the last month.

"It's been terrible! We got sent of to live in different foster families. My foster parents are horrible!" she cried.

Anne and Tom looked at her in shock.

"What!? Where are the boys?"

Dawn shook her head.

"I have no idea. I think they moved to... New York,... North or South Dakota and California."

Anne sighed, and cried out a little.

"California? That's across the country! We have no money."

Dawn shook her head, and sighed, disappointed. She quickly looked over her shoulder, and saw Scarlette and Michael outside the supermarket. They seemed to be looking for her, but Wynter and Kevin pointed around in different directions. Dawn managed to make eye contact with Wynter, who gestured to her that they had to get out of sight for Scarlette and Michael.

"We have to move" Dawn pushed herself, Tom and Anne against the wall on the other side of the street.

"Dawn, what are you doing?"

Dawn hushed Anne.

"You saw the family by the supermarket over there?" Tom and Anne nodded. "They're my abusive foster parents."

Her parents gasped.

"Is that why you have all these bruises?" Tom moved Dawn's hair to show more of a big contusion on her neck.

Dawn nodded quickly. Anne frowned. She looked super mad.

"I'm gonna go over there, and give her a piece of my mind!"

She was just about to storm away, when Dawn grabbed her torn blouse.

"You can't! I'll have to go back there, and there's no way I'm seeing those people again. Only Wynter and Kevin."

Tom and Anne gave them a quick confused glance.

"The kids. They're really nice."

They nodded, understanding. Anne had calmed herself down.

"Then, what _do_ we do right now?"

Dawn shrugged.

"We have to get the boys," Tom said.

Both girls agreed.

"But how?" Anne sighed.

"We just need money, so we can get _any_ way to move through the US."

"Good idea, Dawn," Tom nodded to his daughter. "Now how do we make money quickly?"

* * *

**Updates have been raining in lately, and that's because I'm on spring break! And what way could I spend my break better than to write, and write, and write, and write?**

**Expect a loooot of updates, and probably an end to this story later this week.**

**Then I'll start on the next story: _Quaddle of three_**


	12. The Harpers' reunion

The male Harper quads had all gathered in the best "hiding place" they could find in the hotel. The empty broom cupboard. They were planning how they were going to stay together, and avoid going back to different states. There was no way they would allow that to happen. Then it could take years before they saw each other again.

"We're going to another part of town in an hour," Dicky explained.

"So are we! Maybe... our families could go together," Nicky smiled.

"Well, mine's not."

Nicky and Dicky's smiles disappeared when Ricky said that.

"Then what do we do?" Nicky leaned back onto the wall.

All of them thought for a few seconds.

"I could _try_ to get the Fisher's to go out to. At least Gabrielle and Meg," Ricky looked pretty hopeful. "Meghan isn't that bad anymore. She was just pressured by her parents to be perfect, but after admitting that, she's turned out to be kind of nice. She's even letting me call her Meg."

"That's amazing, dude," Dicky patted Ricky on the back, but Nicky sighed.

"Right now we don't have time for Meg, we need to stay together."

"Nicky's right. Any ideas Dicky?"

All three of them were quiet for a few seconds. Dicky lit up.

"We run away from here, and start our own lives on our own!"

Nicky and Ricky gave him an annoyed look.

"No!" Nicky burst out.

"We don't have the money, and we need Dawn too."

"I actually think the first idea was pretty good. Ricky, you get your family to go into town too. And we just... hope Dawn's there too," Nicky nodded, unsure if it would work.

But it was their best shot at the moment.

* * *

Nicky and Dicky stood outside the hotel, waiting for Ricky. They didn't even know if he was coming, but they knew they had to wait and see.

A couple of meters away from them stood their foster families, talking to each other while the boys waited. None of them had any idea what they were waiting for, but they obeyed Nicky and Dicky. They were just happy to see their foster kids had found their real siblings.

"Do you think he's coming?" Nicky looked out through the hotel window to see if Ricky was anywhere close.

Dicky shrugged.

"I hope so, but I don't know so."

"Nicky, how long are we waiting!?"

Nicky looked over to the families.

"I don't know, Cassandra."

He turned back to Dicky, and mumbled: "I don't know."

Dicky walked around in a circle around himself.

"Uuuugh, when is he coming?" he groaned, impatiently.

"Right now!"

Dicky looked over at Nicky, who was smiling wide, looking at the door. He turned his head there too, and there was Ricky. Close after him Gabrielle and Meghan followed. Meghan was back to acting perfect, now that she was in the presence of her mom. Ricky sprinted down the stairs to the porch, and over to his brothers. He looked excited.

"We're going to town!"

* * *

The three families had been walking for half an hour, with no success to the Harper boys. They hadn't found, or even seen Dawn. Well... how big _were_ the chances that she would just happen to be in the same part of town, at the same time as them.

It turned out that the chances were actually bigger than the boys thought...

"Okay, I've got to go in here!" Kaeli, the oldest Thornton child, dragged herself and her family into a clothing store, leaving Nicky outside with the others.

Nicky frowned, and shook his head in confusion.

"What is so interesting about clothes?"

"Nothing," Ricky shrugged.

Dicky looked at them both with a shocked look on her face.

"Are you kidding me? That store has some of the coolest clothes ever!"

Nicky and Ricky looked up with excited faces.

"Cashmere sweater vests?"

"Bright colored shorts?"

Dicky rolled his eyes.

"No, dummies. Brand clothes!"

"Oh," Nicky and Ricky's excitement was gone.

Ricky looked away to his right, and gasped.

"I can't believe it!" his eyes were now, once again, tearing up at a fast rate.

"Brand clothes aren't that bad, come on, Ricky," Dicky sighed.

"No, he's not talking about that," Nicky had noticed what Ricky saw. "He's talking about them!"

Dicky looked where Nicky pointed, and immediately understood their excitement. Dawn, Tom and Anne had just walked around a corner twenty meters away from them, and Squishy Paws followed them closely. The boy quads couldn't help but start running towards there as fast as they could.

Their confused foster families look after them as they ran to the corner, and right to Tom, Anne, Dawn and Squishy.

They had also noticed the boys running towards them, and they all collided in the biggest family hug they had ever had. Crying of joy, sobbing and cheering, they all started explaining their situations.

"Oh, boys, what are you doing here!?" Anne got an even tighter grip around those she was the closest to.

"We're here for family trips with our foster families."

"What are you doing here? We thought you were dead!"

"We think we got kidnapped in the fire, but we escaped and got here!" Tom used his free hand to wipe a tear.

Dawn gasped for air as she was crying too much.

"I've missed you guys so much!"

"We've missed you too!"

After a whole minute the family let go of each other, and just stood there smiling in pure joy.

"Did you get good families, or were yours horrible too?" there was both worry and hope in Anne's voice.

"It was bad. My foster parents are super snobby and stuck-up, and at first their daughter was too. But she's turned out okay," Anne gave Ricky a big hug, before turning to Dicky.

"Oh, the parents argued all the time, but Alec, Douglas and Steph are like... some of my best friends."

"Well, that's good honey. Nicky?"

"They were nice and all. But they were _extremely_ messy, and I was in the middle of six other kids! I kind of felt forgotten. I wanna be the youngest again."

"You will be," Tom smiled.

By this point, the Thorntons had come out of the store, and had caught up to the Harpers. Isobel was the first to speak to them.

"Uh... Hello there! Not to interrupt or anything, but what is going on?"

The Harpers all smiled at each other, and turned to the Fishers, McDaniels and Thorntons. Anne sighed, happily.

"These-," she gestured to Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn. "-are our children."

Everyone in the foster family group seemed to be shocked, at the same time as they understood, and smiled.

"Then I suppose you want them in your care."

Tom and Anne nodded to Ryder's assumption. Gabrielle stepped forward.

"We can fix that easily. A few calls and signatures, and they'll be right back to you."

* * *

Just a couple of hours later, Tom signed the second last document.

They were at a St. Petersburg police station, and they had gotten a room just for themselves. The quads, Tom, Anne, and all the previous foster parents were there. Except Scarlette and Michael. Since Dawn ran away, they had no way of knowing she was going back. Dawn knew she would have to go back and tell them, since they needed their signature too.

The Thornton and McDaniel kids were out in the waiting room, and so was Meghan.

"There... we... go," Tom laid the pen on the table.

He took the last document, and put it in front of him and Anne.

"Where do we have the Rallisons?" The policeman looked around in the room.

Dawn suddenly remembered something.

"They don't have to sign the document," she slammed her hand onto the desk.

The police gave her a confused look.

"Yes, they do. Otherwise you won't legally be in the Harpers' care."

Dawn sighed, and pushed her hair over to the side.

"You see this bruise," she pointed to the place on her neck. "They hit me. They punched, slapped and did whatever beating on me everyday."

She managed to find another swollen bruise on her left knee. The policeman just looked at her in shock.

"They have kids, right? How are their kids?"

"They beat them too."

The police immediately stood up from his chair and got the phone.

"I'm gonna have to report this. The kids will have to be put into foster care, and the parents will sure as hell go to prison."

Dawn smiled. She kept her promise to Wynter and Kevin. This was amazing.

What was amazing was also that the Harpers were together again. They were a united family. Tom, Anne, Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, Dawn and Squishy Paws. They were all there, together. It all felt good. They didn't have a house, or a place to call home at the time.

But the important thing was; They had each other.

* * *

**March 20th note: When I wrote this story I didn't feel like writing a whole complicated epilogue about a new house and stuff, so just imagine the following.**

**They got back to Colorado, and got a new house.**

**Wynter and Kevin got new foster parents not too far from the Harpers.**

**The kids keep in contact with the friends they made in their foster families.**


	13. Let's Talk

**I'm very glad you like Let's Talk, HollyHook! Thank you for everything you said in that review, and Let's Talk about The Worst That Quad Happen!**

* * *

Same layout as last time, I'll talk about inspiration, the chapters, and just general stuff!

The Idea Behind _The Worst That Quad Happen_

I got the idea reading two other stories in the NRDD fandom.

_Britney Harper - Paige1915_

_Foster kid - wolfgirl3567_

(I love both those stories, check them out if you haven't)

As you know, this story is not like those in many ways. The only thing they really have in common is that it involves foster kids. Most of the inspiration for my story was taken from my own head; my own little box of weird thoughts and ideas.

Unlike TFQS, I didn't get anyone's help with ideas. I got it all in my head. I think we'll start with why I put the quads in their respective foster homes.

Dawn with the Rallison's

This story was a while ago too, so if anyone doesn't remember, I'll quickly explain.

The Rallison's were the abusive parents, Scarlette and Michael, and their kids Wynter and Kevin. They lived in a terraced house in Florida.

I put Dawn there because she is the strongest quad, both physically and emotionally. She could take the abuse better than the boys, as she needed to stay strong for her siblings, even though she's not with them.

Ricky with the Fisher's

The Fisher's were Sam, Gabrielle and their daughter Meghan. They lived in the penthouse of a very tall skyscraper in New York.

As the Fisher's are a very fancy family, I decided to put the most fancy quad there. The only difference is that the Fisher's are _too _fancy, and way too strict. Everyone knows Ricky doesn't like being corrected, and here he's being corrected constantly. He would take it the hardest (which is like the opposite of the reason I put Dawn with the Rallison's haha). Ricky doesn't like being outdone either, and Meghan constantly is better than him.

Dicky with the McDaniel's

Dicky's left with Alec, Douglas, Steph and their soon-divorcing parents Isobel and Marcus. They live in a bungalow in North Dakota.

I put him there, because he was the last one left to place. I had a clear vision for Dawn and Nicky, and four clear visions of the houses. I was left with the penthouse and the bungalow, and put Ricky in the penthouse, which put Dicky with the McDaniel's. Now I'm super happy with that decision, because he fits in perfectly there!

Nicky with the Thornton's

The Thornton's are the big family of eight, consisting of Cassandra, Ryder and their kids Kaeli, Andreas, Braelynn, Mason, Mabel and Staycee. They live in a villa in California.

With so many kids, you'll never have time to yourself as they need constant attention. Without really acknowledging it, Cassandra and Ryder keep the attention to their children, and gives none to their foster kid. As the youngest of the Harper's, Nicky is used to attention, and now that he barely gets any, and is often expected to look after the younger kids, he's uncomfortable there. That's why I put him there.

Now the story, and why I decided that everything that happened should happen

The easiest way to lose your house, where it's like physically gone, is a fire, so I went stereotypical, and used that idea. Then it gets all crazy when you get to know that Tom and Anne are in fact alive.

That's because I wanted a stereotypical happy ending. Then of course they all go to Florida, and stay at the same hotel. The scene when the boys find each other was something that I knew would happen from the start of writing this story.

I didn't plan for Meghan's change in attitude, but it felt right.

**Now let's get to _Explain That Chapter_**

_Horrible Events  
_Chapter Summary \- After a normal day in school, the Harper's return home to realize their house has burned down, leading to them being put in the foster system.

A fire is a pretty horrible event. I can't even imagine it.

_The Perfect Rallison's  
_Chapter Summary \- Dawn leaves the boy quads to meet her new family. She's now living with the Rallison's, who seem perfect in every way. But are they really?...

The "perfect" Rallison's. They're not so perfect at all in fact. Abusive, mean, controlling.

_The Fancy Fisher's  
_Chapter Summary \- Ricky is the second to leave, and he goes to New York City to live with the fancy Fisher family in the penthouse apartment.

The Fisher's are obviously fancy, so what else could I name this chapter.

_The Arguing McDaniel's  
_Chapter Summary \- Dicky leaves Nicky alone when he goes off to North Dakota to move in with the McDaniel's, who's parents are on the edge of a divorce.

I honestly love the McDaniel kids, but I hate the parents. I hope they get a happy ending.

_The Crowded Thornton's  
_Chapter Summary \- Nicky is last to leave for his new home, the Thornton's. A Californian family of eight, who are really busy at all times.

I love this family, they seem to cozy. They're just not the right family for Nicky. I wonder if anyone noticed the Gravity Falls Easter egg I threw in there. It's Mason and Mabel if anyone's wondering.

_The Week of Realization  
_Chapter Summary \- During their first week in the foster families, the quads realize the dark truth about the families, and they're not the good place they thought they were.

Showing their true colors now, huh? I hate Scarlette and Michael, but I love Wynter and Kevin. I don't like any of the Fisher's, but I love British accents. The McDaniel kids are my faves ever, but Isobel and Marcus can go jump off a microwave. I want to be a Thornton, but not like it turned out for Nicky.

_Sweet, Sweet Freedom  
_Chapter Summary \- Tom and Anne are trapped in a truck on the move. They escape somewhere in the country, but where?

Yay for alive parents! And their sweet freedom

_Celebration, Business and Apologies  
_Chapter Summary \- All three families the boys are with decide to go on a trip to Florida for different reasons.

I felt happy writing this, because it meant everyone could be happy soon

_Illusions at Hollander's  
_Chapter Summary \- At the Hollander hotel, the Harper boys think they see each other, but question it.

This chapter involved research. The Hollander Hotel is real, and I picked it because... I don't remember but there was some reason.

_The Best Collision Ever  
_Chapter Summary \- The Harper boys collide with each other during breakfast, and are now reunited.

Yeah this was one of the things that I thought of from the beginning. I knew this would happen when I started writing this

_Finally Free  
_Chapter Summary \- Dawn escapes the Rallison's, and by chance and luck reunites with Tom and Anne

I really hope Wynter and Kevin will have a happy ending too. They need to get away from Scarlette and Michael

_The Reunion of the Harper's  
_Chapter Summary \- While in town, all the Harper's see each other, and are reunited at last.

I can't help but wonder what they're going to do now. They don't have a house, they're in Florida, can't get home to Boulder, have no money, what do they do?!

**Thanks for reading this story!**

Thanks to everyone who's read this story, I'm so happy you did!

Big thanks to HollyHook, MissMeowipuff, NcisFanGirl NcisJibbsFanGirl, Sister Francis, cr6331280 and Rickzie Harpell for favoriting this story!

Another big thanks to Demigod of Magic, HollyHook, MissMeowipuff, R-KO and Sister Francis for following this story during the 6 days it took me to write 12 chapters.

And the BIGGEST thanks of all to Leyla, Sister Francis and especially HollyHook for reviewing. Thanks, thanks, thanks so much for the reviews! I love them!

I can't believe this story now has over 1000 views. Thank you everyone!


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